.'^• r^v^^fKl: -J '^o ^.V * O N O ^ .0" ^A^^/b'^ % <}• .v <" ^^^ ^ °o%^M:^: C q\ , o " o r-Tv. ^ ^>\ \'^m\.^ \^^j>j^\/' \-'^r. 1°^ 0 _c .<^ ^'^•%. K^ ^^ [^<^: tt o^.-X--^"/ 'Ca% 4o ^ p: •>' "°o A > 0' \^^ ^' \ o > "^^ "-0 ^: * 0 -^ %-My^,^ ^ ^ '* .^^ ^ E- . %7^ Sau-Ke-Nuk THE STORY OF BLACK HAWK'S TOWER »-- > t BY JULIA MILLS DUNN Illustrated by ALICE C. WALKER I i M I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH < ^ < SAU-KE-NUK < The Story of Black Hawk's Tower < ► < ► A By Julia Mills Dunn ► < Member of The Illinois State Historical Society ► ^ State Historian ► A Daughters of the American Revolution of Illinois ► A ► A ► A Illustrated by Alice C. Walker ► A ► A ► A ' ► A ^^%^ ► A ^^» ► A ^^^ ► A ► A ► A MOLINE, IT.LINOIS: ^ DESAULNIERS & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS r > A 1905 A ► MTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTM LIBRARY M JONGHESS Two Copies rit^eivco JUN 19 iy05 COPY 6. Copyright, 1905. By Julia Mills Dunn, Moline, 111. SAU-KE-NUK. Thk Story of Black Hawk's Tower. LITTLE more than seventy years ago these grounds were owned and occupied by the Sauk, or Sac Indians, whose chief was known as Ma - ka - tai - me - she- kia-kiak, or Black Hawk. Among the strong characters that have become historic in the annals of the Northwest that of this great chief stands pre-eminent. All reliable state- ments of those who were personally acquainted with him and his contemporaries agree that he was a man of great mind, wonderful energy and unsurpassed courage. The united possessions of the Sauk and Fox Indians included the whole of the state of Iowa, and on this side of the Mississippi River the 3 lands lying along the Illinois River from its mouth as far as Peoria, then north to the Wisconsin River about seventy or eighty miles from its mouth, down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, and thence to the Illinois. They had several villages in Rock Island county, but the largest was known as Sauke- nuk, or the city of the Sauks. It stood a short distance from Black Hawk's Tower toward the west and about three miles and a half from where Rock River, known to the Indians as Sinissippi, empties into the great Father of Waters. The date of the settlement at Saukenuk has never been definitely ascertained. Black Hawk himself said that his people had occu- pied these lands more than one hundred years when they were dispossessed by the whites in 1832. The location of Saukenuk was an ideal one. The Sinissippi, rich in story and tradition, here flow^s through a valley as fertile as that of the world-famed Nile. As one looks over the 4 farms that now stretch away in the distance, a more beautiful scene cannot be found in the state. The prairie uplands clothed with fields of waving grain in various shades of green, the clumps of stately elms that are dotted along the banks of the willow- fringed river that glitters through the trees in mirror-like brightness, and the spirit of peace that seems to brood over the valley, make a scene whose perfect beauty can never be forgotten. A short distance from the site of ancient Sau- kenuk the shore of the Sinissippi rises into a bold promontory more than two hundred feet high, and this is called Black Hawk's Watch Tower. Those who regard these people as little better than animals or beasts of prey, say that from this lofty eminence that over- looked the village Black Hawk used to sit and watch for his foes to anticipate their attack and destroy them. But those who knew him best said that he ^ ^^ was a lover of natural scenery, and that it is more probable that 5 - ^^£ ^^/* became here for peaceful purposes. He him- self in his autobiography says : ' ' The Tower was a favorite resort, and I often went there alone where I could sit and smoke my pipe and look with pleasure and wonder at the grand scenes before me. ' ' Saukenuk has been called a village, but perphaps a better idea would be conveyed by the word town, for it once numbered by actual count eleven thousand active, industri- ous, energetic, intelligent people. Like the towns built by white men, it was laid out into lots, blocks, streets and alleys. It had two public squares, and like the old villages and cities we see everywhere in Europe today, it was w^alled for protection, not with stone, but fortified with brush palisades with gates for entrances. Thus it will be seen that Saukenuk was not a mere aggregation of huts and wigwams but a town of permanent dwellings. They were built to face the street, or public square, at a uniform distance from the street 6 and equal distances apart. They were of poles sunk into the ground, the tops bent over and lashed together forming a roof, which was then covered with strips of elm bark, both top and sides. These made their summer dwell- ings, but in winter they occupied wigwams, or tepees, as the latter were small and could be better heated. Where the two public squares intersected stood their council house, which was of immense size without any par- tition. The council house was used by the chiefs and men in authority for the secret con- sideration and discussion of all matters per- taining to the tribe. When not in use for this purpose it was used as a gymnasium and danc- cing hall by the young people. But it was on the public square that all the people met on all great occasions, and it was here that their mass meet- ings were held. The Sauks were governed by two sets of men, peace chiefs and war 7 chiefs, corresponding to our civil and mili- tary departments. The duties of the peace chiefs were to settle all disputes between their own and other tribes and between the whites and themselves. The war chiefs never interfered in the affairs of the village and the decisions of the peace chiefs were never questioned. The agricultural labor of the community was left to the old men, women and boys. Because of a superstition that their crops would yield better if planted by women, the corn planting w^as done chiefly by the women of the tribe. They cultivated corn of several varieties, squashes, beans and melons. Like the fashionable folk of today the people of Saukenuk considered it a necessity to go away from home for a part of the year, and about the middle of September a general exo- dus took place for their western hunting grounds, from which they did not return until corn-planting time, about the middle of April, or * ' when the oak leaves were the size of a 8 mouse's ear." They all left on the same day, almost at the same hour. In order to do this a man with a strong voice was appointed to go through the village a few days before, proclaim- ing the day and hour of departure. In starting they went down the Mississippi, taking all their canoes, about two hundred, and from five hun- dred to seven hundred horses. It was arranged that they should take hunting grounds that would not interfere with the Fox tribe, who were their friends and neighbors and with whom they had formed an alliance for defensive purposes. The Sauks took middle and southern Iowa and the Foxes went to the northern part of the same state. After the fall hunt they went into winter quarters at some appointed rendezvous which they frequently fortified as a protection against the warlike Sioux with whom they were at war, and here they stayed until after the spring sugar making, when they returned to Saukenuk. The appointed leader of the return trip would per- mit no straggling. They were told in the 9 morning where they would camp at night. They kept their horses and canoes as close together as possible and would arrive in camp at nearly the same hour after a day's march. With all the impedimenta their progress was necessarily slow, and they often did not march more than ten miles a day. They brought home maple sugar and dried meat, having disposed of the hides and furs they had acquired to some Indian trader before starting home. Before leaving Saukenuk in the fall they buried their vegetables, squashes, beans and dried corn, and their first task on return- ing home was to inspect the places where their stores had been hidden to get the vegetable food of which they had been deprived for so many months. They prepared the corn by boiling it while green, cutting it from the cob and then drying it in the sun. It made a palatable dish of which they were very fond. To hide these stores where they could not be found they selected a dry spot where there was bluegrass sod. Then they cut away a circular 10 piece of sod the size of a man's body. This was carefully laid aside and a hole dug, enlarging it as they went down to a depth of five or six feet. It was made large enough to hold the beans, squashes, dried corn, and sometimes crab- apples, sufficient for one family. The hole was lined on the inside with strips of bark, and in sacks made from woven flags and grasses, or skins they had tanned, they put the vege- table provisions for their next summer's use. The sacks were then covered with layers of bark, the surplus dirt removed so as to destroy all traces of digging, and the sod carefully replaced. Well they knew that as soon as they were gone the Winnebagoes or some other tribe would be there searching for these hidden del- icacies. To make the hiding places more dif- ficult to find they would sometimes dig these holes in the center of the wigwam , where they made their fire, and after the hole was filled they would build a fresh fire over the spot to hide all traces of digging. But the Winneba- goes and other thieving tribes would thrust 11 their sharp mnskrat spears into the ground, and sometimes discover them however cun- ningly concealed. When a family had been robbed in this way during their absence some of the 3^oung men of Saukenuk would go around the village and collect a small portion from each family to make up the loss. The annual buifalo hunt took place in sum- mer, the hunters leaving home in July. This took them to the far w^estern country w^here it was probable they would meet the fierce and warlike Sioux, who were their bitter enemies. Elaborate preparations were necessary for an event of so much importance, and each man carried a gun, a bow and a large bundle of arrows. They often w^aged fierce battles with the cruel Sioux, and besides the dried meat and tallow they brought home, they also brought the scalps they had taken from their enemies. If any of their number had fallen in battle, there was no rejoicing out of deference to the feelings of the bereaved relatives, but the}^ blacked their faces instead of wearing 12 black clothes, and mourned in silence for a specified time. If they had been victorious, and suffered no loss of life, there was great rejoicing and dancing that lasted for days. There was no intoxicating liquor used in Saukenuk. Black Hawk would not allow it and forbade the Indian agents to sell it to his people. When this request was disregarded, and some of his young men had been per- suaded to drink, he went to the agency, rolled the whisky barrels out of doors and broke in the barrel heads with a tomahawk. The people of Saukenuk were quite ceremonious and did not like to have their code of etiquette infringed upon. When a white man was the guest of an Indian, no offence was taken if he declined to partake of any dish he did not like, but once helped it was a breach of etiquette to leave anything. He could, however, hire some Indian to eat it for him . This was considered good form, and furnished an easy w^ay out of many a difficulty. The people of Saukenuk were honest. After trading posts were estab- 13 lished they were often induced to buy more than they could afford, but the agents said that though the debts were many they never lost a dollar from Black Hawk's patron- age, nor from any of his people. They had many poetic and beautiful legends that they used to tell around their wigwam fires when the severity of the weather precluded out- door sports. One of these w^as of a young Sioux brave, who, lost on the prairie in a snowstorm, found himself at Saukenuk and asked hospi- tality. Although he was their enemy, he was safe as a guest, and was warmed and fed in the wigwam of a brave who had a daughter called Dark Eyes . The young couple fell deeply in love and it was arranged that when he returned the following summer she would go as his bride to the far off western country and live in his lodge among his kindred. When summer came, and the corn was just beginning to show its tassels in the following June, the young Sauk maiden at work with her mother in the corn field heard the signal — the whistle of an oriole — 14 and returned to her home to get her blanket before joining her lover, who was waiting. But alas, her two brothers had also heard the sig- nal, witnessed the meeting of the two, and pursued the fleet-footed Dark Eyes and^ her Sioux lover. The fleeing lovers, hard pressed, took refuge in a cave under Black Hawk's Tower. A furious rain storm was coming up, a bolt of lightning rent the cliff and it fell, crushing the faithful lovers under the ruins. Since then, on summer nights the whistle of an oriole can sometimes be heard, and Dark Eyes and her Jover come forth and wander about the familiar places. Another legend is that a wandering French violinist once came to Saukenuk and was enter- taining the people who had gathered on the Tower with the music of his violin — a recital we should call it in these daj^s. His back was toward the cliff as he faced his audience, and becoming enthusiastic over his own music he stepped backward over the edge, and was dashed to death below. With the annual recur- 15 %{^ t^' rence of the time of the tragedy, the people of Saiikenuk said that the soft strains of a violin could be heard floating on the summer air. Two or three miles from Saukenuk, just above the point where the Mississippi joins the Father of Waters, is an island in the Missis- sippi nearly three miles long, and three-quar- ters of a mile wide, comprising about one thou- sand acres. This was a favorite pleasure resort for the young people of Saukenuk, where they went to gather strawberries, blackberries and nuts that grew here plentifully in the season. It was a favorite fishing resort also, and here they loved to gather and indulge in their simple amusements, dashing through the rapids in their light canoes and enjoying other pas- times. One spot on this island was sacred ground, and they never approached it save with a hushed tread and subdued voices. This was at the lower end of the island, where the rock which forms the bed of the island, and from which it receives its name, rises in an almost perpendicular wall many feet in height. 16 Directly under it is a cave where they believed a good spirit lived, the guardian of their tribe. Like the seers of modern times, many of them had seen spirits, and this one was in the form of a swan, only ten times larger, and pure white, as orthodox spirits are supposed to be. The simple, idyllic life of these people, as told in Black Hawk's biography, dictated by himself, reads like a romance. "We always had plenty," he says; "our children never cried with hunger nor were our people ever in want. We had about eight hundred acres in cultivation, including what we had on the islands in Rock River just opposite the Tower. The land about our village, uncultivated, was covered with blue grass, which made excellent pasture for our horses. Several fine springs furnished us with water, the Sinissippi yielded an abundance of fish, and the land being good, never failed to produce good crops of corn, beans, pumpkins and squashes. Here our vil- lage had stood for more than a hundred years, during which time we had been the undis- puted possessors of this beautiful region." The people had numerous feasts and cere- monious dances in which both men and women participated. After the corn was all planted in the spring there was a great feast and a dance called the crane dance, which was the great social event of the year. The Sauk maidens, dressed in their costumes of fine tanned leather, as white and soft as some woven fabric, trimmed with ermine and dec- orated with elaborate colored embroidery of porcupine quills, joined in the dance, this being one in which women were allowed to participate. The time of the crane dance was the time when all the young men of the vil- lage chose their wives. One of their modes of courtship was for a young man to take his flute and sit before the lodge in which the young woman lived whom he wanted for a wife, and begin playing on his flute. One after another the young women who lived in the lodge would come out and the player would change the tune until the right one appeared, when he would continue the tune 18 without change. That night he would go to the lodge after the family had retired and pre- sent himself at the bedside of the young woman, holding a lighted torch to his face that she might know him. If she took no notice of him he would go away, but if she blew out the light it was a sign that his suit was accepted and he was thereafter considered one of the family. After the crane dance, which sometimes lasted for several days, they danced their national dance, which was for men exclu- sively. The large square in the village was swept and prepared for the purpose, and the warriors, one at a time, stepping to the sound of the music, came into the center of the cir- cle of listeners and told of some exploit of war or adventure in which he had distinguished himself. The summer time was the happy season of they ear, and they made feasts and indulged in games until the corn was ripe and ready to pick. Every day in some lodge in the village was held 19 a feast to the Great Spirit, for the Sauks were a religious people. Black Hawk once said, We thank the Great Spirit daily for all the benefits he has conferred upon us. For my- self, I never take a drink of water froma spring without thanking Him for His goodness." When Black Hawk's father died, in accord- ance with the custom of the tribe he built himself a cabin remote from the village and with his wife and children retired to this quiet spot and spent five years in fasting and prayer to the Great Spirit, eating only a few grains of parched corn daily at sunset. Once on the return march of the tribe from their annual hunt in Iowa, Black Hawk's daughter died and was buried near the place where the city of Keokuk now stands. She was a great favorite with her father, and as long as he lived Black Hawk went alone every year on the anniversary of her death to the place where she was buried, and, blacking his face and shrouding it with his blanket, spent the entire day by the grave in fasting and prayer. 20 0» When the corn was ripe another great ceremony took place, with feasting and returning thanks to the Great Spirit for His gift of corn. Then came the great ball play in which a thousand players were engaged, four or five hundred playing on a side. They, like the white people, played for forfeits or prizes, and guns, blankets and horses were taken by the victors. After the ball play, which often lasted for days, came the horse races where, as with us, betting was freely indulged in, and horses, blankets and guns again changed hands, but with the utmost good feeling and friendly rivalr^^ They played too, an indoor game called "Plum Stone," or Game of the Bowl, in which the women were very skillful, as our modern society dames are in the various games of cards. Thirteen pieces, nine of them carved from bone, were tossed about in a bowl and were counted according to the positions they assumed when they fell. There were two figures of sea serpents, two ininewug, or 21 wedge-men, one war club, one fish, three ducks — all of bone, polished white on one side, and painted red on the other. There were also four pieces of brass — round discs black on one side and polished on the other. The bowl, held in both hands, was tossed or shaken, and when all the pieces turned red side up and one of the ininewugs, or wedge- men, stood upright on the bright side of one of the brass discs, it counted one hundred and fifty-eight — the highest count in the game. Close to the foot of the promontory, or Tower, was the place where they buried their dead — Chippianock — the Silent City. Here they came to visit their dead, and to the Sau- kenuk people the place was only a little less dear than the village which lay beyond, and to which they were bound by the sacred ties of family and friends, their home. In the fall a small number of chosen warriors went to Maiden, near Detroit to receive their annual allowance from the British military authorities stationed there. The route they 22 RD 14.8 took was plainly visible a few years ago and was known as the "old Sauk trail." Each warrior wore his best, as befitted such an im- portant occasion, and the procession must have been a picturesque one, as each dusky brave slipped silently into line and started on the long march, his plumed headdress nodding in the breeze, his garments gay with the colored em- broidery of quills and beads wrought by the deft hands of some dark-eyed sweetheart. The story of the destruction of Saukenuk by the white race is too long aiid involved to be told here. When our government — unjustly, as many believe — gave the order for Black hawk and his people to give up their village and lands to the white settlers the order was met with stubborn resistance, and General Gaines was sent from St. Louis with a force of soldiery to compel them to obedience. The village was burned to the ground and the Sauks driven beyond the Mississippi, the con- flict that ensued being known in history as the Black Hawk War. Saukenuk is no more. 23 On the spot wheer the great chieftain of a mighty nation once stood to gaze on his vast possessions, stands Black Hawk Inn. Through the site of ancient Saukenuk the trolley cars of the Tri-City Railway glide along on their way to Milan on tracks of shin- ing steel . The cemetery that lay between the village and the Tower, that had held for over a century the sacred ashes of unnumbered dead, has been desecrated by the spade and plow of the white man. On the island w^here the young people used to wander, the massive stone buildings of the Rock Island Arsenal stand today. Over the cave where the good spirit lived the Daughters of the American Revolution have erected a monument to mark the site of old Fort Armstrong. But even the destroying hand of improve- ment has failed to mar its beauty, and it still holds the charm that made it so dear to Black Hawk and the people of ancient Saukenuk. 24 e^sm iUH 19 «8<15 y^^xr, .0 V' ^^%- ^^\^' rO' Sl^ i^m^ H^. ^^^. ^ A^.,.^.- DOBBSBROS. . ^^ .& * LIBRARY BINDING ^ \^^ V „ ST. AUGUSTINE PM.' .V --^ W^/ 32084 '^, 4